Powers/Abilities: Each Mekkan had
a superhumanly strong and durable body. They were also able to
instantly become
fluent in any language upon hearing only a syllable of it due to the
superhuman
processing power of their CPUs. Presumably, they could repair and
reactivate
their bodies if seriously injured, provided that the central processing
unit
(located within their head) was not destroyed.

Type:
Bilaterally
symmetrical mechanical bipeds
Eyes: Two (although Mekkans
did not possess eyes so
much as optical sensors)
Fingers: Five on each hand
Toes: The Mekkans
did not appear to be
constructed with toes.
Skin Color: Most of the Mekkans'
outer shells
were a silvery blue color, excepting Torgo's,
which
was an iron-like dark blue color.
Average Height: 6' (by approximation)

History:

(Fantastic
Four I#174 (fb)) - The Mekkan
race was
created by the inhabitants of the planet Maarin,
whose technology had advanced to the point where they had created
advanced
mechanical servants. The first of these Mekkans
was Torgo, the largest
and most powerful of the Mekkans.
After Torgo's
construction, all future generations of Mekka
were
made somewhat smaller. Following the success of the Mekkans,
the Maarin began
mechanizing their entire planet,
even creating artificial plants and allowing the planet's natural plant
life to
die off.

(Fantastic
Four I#174 (fb) - BTS) - As part of the planet's mechanization, the Maarin
created the Tower of Life, an immense tower that powered all of their
mechanical creations, including Mekkans.

(Fantastic
Four I#174 (fb)) - Unfortunately,
the artificial plants oxidized a drifting space virus that eradicated
all
organic life on the planet. The MekkanTorgo buried the last
remaining Maarin
on the planet.

(Fantastic
Four I#92 (fb) - BTS) - Centuries later, the MekkanTorgo
was captured by the Skrulls
of Kral
and forced to fight in their arenas under threat of destruction of Torgo's planet, Maarin.

(Fantastic
Four I#91 - BTS) - As
part of the Skrulls of Kral's
group of arena fighters, Torgo
represented the planet
Maarin. While there, Torgo
met the Fantastic Four's Thing from Earth.

(Fantastic
Four I#92 - BTS) - Torgo
continued to fight in the Kral
arenas in order to keep Maarin
from being destroyed
by the Skrulls' Sonic
Disruptor weapon. Despite the
Thing's attempts to talk Torgo
into turning against
his captors, Torgo
remained convinced that any
attempt at escape would mean destruction of his home planet.

(Fantastic
Four I#93 - BTS) -
Still convinced that he was doing what had to be done to ensure the Mekkans' safety, Torgo sadly fought
the Thing as ordered until the rest of the Fantastic Four arrived to
rescue the
Thing. During the ensuing scuffle against the Skrulls,
Torgo freed the other
arena slaves and then joined in
the fight against their captors. Torgo
continued
fighting as the Fantastic Four made their escape back to Earth.

(Fantastic
Four I#173 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo and the arena
slaves won the battle against
the Skrulls of Kral.
Returning home to the planet Maarin,
Torgo was made its "First Among
Equals," or ruler. His word became law, provided that it did not oppose
the Mekkans' prime
directives.

(Fantastic
Four I#174 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo renamed the
planet Mekka.
Over time, Mekka's
atmosphere cleansed itself of the
space virus that had killed the Maarin.
The Mekkans lived on
the planet, never birthing new beings nor
ever dying, thanks to the Tower of Life that had long outlasted its
creators.

(Fantastic
Four I#173) - When the
planet-devouring Galactus
threatened to consume the
Counter-Earth created by the High Evolutionary, the High Evolutionary
located
three other planets within the Milky Way Galaxy that could serve as
alternative
food sources for Galactus.
The planet Maarin was
one of those planets. Splitting into teams to
investigate each of the planets found by the High Evolutionary, the
Fantastic
Four (and High Evolutionary's
evolved Gorr the Golden
Gorilla) visited the planets in hopes of
convincing them to sacrifice their planet for Counter-Earth. The Thing
and Mr.
Fantastic transported to the mechanical-looking planet they had seen on
the
High Evolutionary's
screens. Welcomed by the Mekkans,
the Thing and Mr. Fantastic soon met with their ruler,
Torgo. After explaining
to Torgo
that Galactus would
agree to spare Counter-Earth in
exchange for the Fantastic Four picking a suitable world to sacrifice
instead,
the Thing and Mr. Fantastic were captured by Torgo,
who was fearful that if the heroes left, they would reveal Maarin's
location to Galactus.
Eventually succeeding in capturing
Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, Torgo
and the other Mekkans
placed the heroes in their Elektro-Clamps,
which attracted any non-metallic object such as the organic Earthlings.

(Fantastic
Four I#174) - As the Mekkans
prepared Mr. Fantastic and the Thing for the "Ultimate Resolution," Torgo
explained to the heroes
how the Mekkans came to
populate their planet. After
finishing the story, Torgo
announced that the
"Ultimate Resolution" would transform the two heroes into robotic forms
of life
and then left to attend to other matters, leaving the heroes unguarded.
Knowing
that Torgo had
underestimated them, the Thing and Mr.
Fantastic quickly escaped but were discovered by a group of Mekkans,
who attacked despite their desire not to hurt the heroes. The two
heroes made
their way to the Tower of Life, where Torgo
was
waiting for them, having used the Tower to override his prime
directives
against killing in order to stop the Thing and Mr. Fantastic. While
the Thing
battled Torgo, Mr.
Fantastic continued into the Tower
of Life, where he battled two more Mekkans
before
turning off the Tower, leaving all of the Mekkans
inert. Despite their victory, the Thing and Mr. Fantastic realized that the
Mekkans were as much
alive as any human and decided to
restore power to the Tower of Life. As Torgo
regained
consciousness, he admitted his shame in attacking his former friend,
the Thing,
and agreed to allow the two heroes to leave in peace. Expecting to be
transported
back to the High Evolutionary's
ship, the Thing and
Mr. Fantastic found it odd that they were not returning,
prompting the Thing to question whether they were stuck on Mekka
forever.

(Marvel
Two-in-One I#45) - During
a battle against Boss Barker, the Thing and the Kree
Captain Mar-Vell, Torgo's
severed head used its last bit of energy to defeat Boss Barker. With
Barker
defeated, Captain Mar-Vell
explained to Thing that he
could program Boss Barker's Skrull
starship to return
Torgo to the planet Mekka,
where he could be repaired and reactivated.

(Hostess
Fruit Pies
advertisement: "The Ultimate Weapon" - (fb) - BTS) - After being
repaired and
reactivated on Mekka, Torgo
was apparently captured by two cloaked aliens who had captured the
Thing.

Comments: Created by Stan
Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.

I
chose to list Fantastic Four
I#91-93 as BTS appearances of the Mekkan
race. While Torgo was a
Mekkan, the entire
race did not appear until Fantastic Four I#173. It was shown that Torgo was fighting to protect
the planet Maarin from
destruction in Fantastic Four I#91-93 so the
planet's inhabitants would be BTS in those appearances, as they were
being
protected by Torgo even
though we didn't see any of
them besides Torgo
himself.

Torgo was seen in several
appearances prior to
and after the appearance of the other Mekkans
in Fantastic
Four I#173-174. One could imagine the other Mekkans
were behind-the-scenes in some of Torgo's
appearances
such as in Fantastic Four I#91-93, where Torgo
was
mentioned as representing the planet Maarin
(which
was the home planet of the Mekkans
and later renamed
to Mekka), and Marvel
Two-in-One I#45, where it was
specifically stated by Captain Mar-Vell
that Torgo would be
sent back to Mekka
(where, presumably, other Mekkans
repaired and
reactivated Torgo).
Since Torgo
was next seen in perfect shape in the Hostess Fruit Pies ad, one could
only
assume that prior to the Hostess ad,Torgo was indeed
repaired and reactivated before being
captured by the aliens seen in the advertisement.

In 2016 there was a prose story for Transformers that was set in a universe based off of it's Marvel comic (the main difference being Humans never evolved on Earth), which I know wasn't connected to the main Marvel universe, but it did have some references. In this story there was an alternative version of the Mekkans called Teklaans, who had tricked Bluestreak (an Autobot) into trying to allow them to rebuild Cybertron and its inhabitants (which is destroyed in this story) but also introducing a virus that would kill the new Cybertronians and allow them to take over. It name drops Maarin in it as well. Additionally the Author said this: https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/140167-ama-bish-jesse-jim/page-2#entry3512108
Cergo and the Teklaans...Cergo was actually meant as a successor to Torgo. I speculated that since there were no humans, there were no Fantastic Four, and thus no one to save Torgo from the Skrulls' gladiator pits. Without Torgo's return to Mekka to ensure that its state of social stagnation continued, groups such as the Teklaans were allowed to rise and follow their own interpretation of their programming - IE terraform other worlds rather than simply maintain their own. So they too got to become something new and different.--Stella Holley